It’s interesting to hear what gives a farmer pleasure. Paige Witherington, farm manager for Serenbe Farms in Chattahoochee Hills, told me how much she enjoys harvesting parsnips.
“It’s fun to pull them up because they’re so long. You have to use a really sturdy fork to dig deep enough. And they smell so nice. Once we start digging, you can smell them from 10 feet away,” she said.
Witherington sells her produce through a community-supported agriculture program on the farm with delivery points around Atlanta and to local restaurants including those in the Serenbe community. Her CSA program will start up again in April, and she hopes to still have parsnips for those first few boxes.
Parsnips are one of the most cold-hardy vegetables she grows. Seeded in September, they take three weeks to germinate. By March, they’re ready to harvest. They need rich, fertile soil. Parsnips, like carrots, are a root, and tough growing conditions can make the roots split or have bigger feeder roots, which take away from the long slender taproot we expect.
Smaller parsnip thinnings go to restaurants for those baby vegetable plates. Full-size parsnips will go to home cooks.
Witherington buys her seed from Johnny’s Selected Seeds in Maine. She likes ‘Javelin’ and ‘Lancer’ and is looking forward to trying their new pelleted seed since parsnip seeds, like carrots, are almost as tiny as specks of dust.
Her CSA members aren’t as stymied by parsnips as they might be by more unusual vegetables, but she does find they need a little encouragement to think outside the box. “You can do anything with them that you can do with carrots, but they’re a little sweeter and a little starchier,” she said.
And they have that distinctive fragrance that makes harvesting them so much fun.
Parsnips should be stored in the coldest and most humid part of your refrigerator, usually the vegetable crisper. Wrapped in paper towels and then loosely wrapped in plastic, they can last for months. Parsnips generally have a thin skin and may need only scrubbing before being cooked.
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Vegetables: arugula, Asian greens, beets, cabbage, carrots, celery, chard, collards, dandelion, endive, frisee, green garlic, green onions, herbs, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, mushrooms, radicchio, radishes, rutabagas, spinach, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, turnips
From local reports
Glazed Parsnips
Hands on: 10 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes
Serves: 6
2 pounds parsnips, peeled, cut into finger-size lengths
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Put parsnips in a large saucepan and add enough water to cover by 1 inch. Add salt. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and arrange parsnips on prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with sugar, dot with butter and sprinkle with cayenne and rosemary. Bake 20 minutes or until parsnips begin to brown. Remove from oven and serve hot or warm.
Per serving: 171 calories (percent of calories from fat, 31), 2 grams protein, 27 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams fiber, 6 grams fat (4 grams saturated), 16 milligrams cholesterol, 371 milligram sodium.
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